EVANSTON, Ill. – The Indiana softball team’s 2014 campaign came to an end this afternoon with a 4-2 loss to Purdue in the opening game of the Big Ten Softball Tournament in Evanston, Ill. Indiana threatened to make a comeback in its final at bat with the tying run in scoring position, but a pair of strikeouts ended the game and eliminated the Hoosiers from B1G postseason play.

The Hoosiers totaled four hits, two of which exited the park, with CaraMia Tsirigos the lone Hoosier to earn a multiple-hit game. She finished the day with a homerun and a single while driving in an RBI. Breanna Saucedo made the most of her final game donning the Cream and Crimson uniform, connecting on her first career homerun to open the contest. Natalie Lalich rounded out the Indiana offense with a single in the top of the seventh inning.

Lora Olson got the start and tossed the first 2.2 innings in the circle. She allowed two earned on a two-out homerun in the third before Meaghan Murphy took over in the third frame with two outs. She went 1.2 innings, allowing three hits and just two runs in the loss. Brooke Boetjer closed the remaining 1.2 innings and surrendered a pair of hits.

Leadoff homeruns in consecutive innings helped Indiana to a 2-0 lead. Saucedo attacked the second pitch of her at bat and launched her first career homerun as a Hoosier over the right field fence. CaraMia Tsirigos followed suit in the second, opening the frame with a solo homerun that landed in the bleachers just beyond the right-center field fence.

Purdue responded with a game-tying longball with two away in the third inning to knot the score at two-all. After the Boilermakers added a double in that same frame, Meaghan Murphy checked into the circle to record the final out.

The Boilermakers added a pair of runs in the fifth inning to take their first lead of the contest. Brooke Boetjer checked into the circle with one out and bases loaded, but Purdue would touch her for a single through the left side to plate the go-ahead run. A ground ball looked to set up a force out at home, but the throw to Dotson was too high, allowing another run to come across and put the Hoosiers back 4-2.

Trailing by two runs in the top of the seventh, the Hoosiers continued to show fight in the final innings as Lalich and Tsirigos connected on back-to-back singles to provide batter Shelby Gogreve and opportunity to hit with the tying run on first. She laid down a sacrifice bunt to push the tying run into scoring position, but Purdue’s Lilly Fecho manged to retire the final two outs on strikes.